Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Placing Blame: Our Pride Made Manifest

Piper had a guest writer today (Ben Reaoch) who took up the task of tackling personal responsibility; below is a quote from that post.

It started in the Garden. Adam said to God,

The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate. (Genesis 3:12) The first man, caught in the first sin, turns to blame his wife. And he extends the blame to God as well! He implies that he would have remained innocent if God hadn't put Eve in the garden with him. The blame-shifting in the Garden continues today. Our proud hearts send us desperately looking for someone else to point to every time we're confronted with our own sin. There must be someone else—our spouse, sibling, parent, boss, co-worker, pastor, friend, or God, himself. We are so desperate to justify ourselves that we become irrational.

Some questions:-Do we have an issue with assigning blame to others?-Do we honestly think we are always the measure of what is right and true?-What do you think about the examples he provided?-Is asking for forgiveness and repentance in order?-How do we go about changing this ideology that seeks to blame all others save for self?